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Congratulations, you’ve made it to Day 21. Well done, that sets you apart from the majority.

What have you achieved?

As we complete the challenge it’s a great time to stop and reflect upon your achievements. The first one is getting to this stage! What would you describe as the your three greatest gains from the challenge? You may have learned something new. You may have developed some new habits. You may have a clear goal and a workable plan to achieve it. You may have found a new tool that has made life easier or more focused. Or your gains may be about the money you’ve made or the decisions you’ve taken, I would love it if you would share your achievements here or in the Facebook group but if you don’t want to go public then it would be great to get an email from you to glenda.shawley@thetrainingpack.co.uk

Celebrate your success

My mentee, Sarah Webb of justsayhi.co.uk has just won Best New Business in the Hounslow Business Awards. I’m delighted to celebrate her success and look forward to buying her a glass of bubbly.

Success can be a great motivator. It puts a spring in our steps and a smile on our faces. It lifts the people around us, our family, friends, colleagues, customers, mentors, and suppliers. Who can you share your success with? Who will understand what it really means. I remember coming home one day thrilled to have won a big contract we were tendering for, my husband’s reaction was a somewhat unemotional, ‘Well done’ quickly followed by ‘how much money is it worth’ and then some minor domestic details. My bubble was burst! Yes my husband was pleased but he really didn’t understand what a big deal it was. My colleagues on the other hand shared my delight and the odd glass of something sparkling in celebration. They made all the effort really worthwhile.

Who are you going to share your success with? Who will understand what it has taken to get to this point? Who will be impressed? One of my goals for this challenge was to give you a means with which to generate your news story to get you some PR. (see Day 19), don’t miss out on the opportunity. Share your success with fellow challengers because if they’ve got to this stage they really know how much effort has gone in to your achievement.

ACTION: Celebrate your achievements. Don’t dwell on what is still a work in progress. When you have reached your financial target please send me an email and tell me how much you have raised. I won’t share your personal figure but add it to a running total made by all challengers and that will be my story!

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)

If you have kept up so far you should have a plan by now but a plan is of no use unless you take action so that’s our focus for today.

Take action now!

One of the major differences between achievers and everyone else is that achievers take action. They don’t wait for everything to be perfect. They don’t wait until everything is in place. They don’t wait until they have done just a bit more training. They dive in! The learn as they go. They bring in help for the things that they can’t do themselves. Are you an action taker?

By now you should have an idea, a budget, a project management plan and a promotional plan so you are ready to take action. If you have implemented some of the tips from Days 8 and 9 you will be using some tools to help your productivity and you should be ready to take action.

ACTION: If you haven’t done it already plan what you are going to achieve in each of your Power Hours for the next week. Make your targets visible. Pin them on the fridge, make simpleology.com your home page, stick a post it on your computer!

Commit.

I don’t know about you but I break more promises to myself than anyone else. That’s why we need to make a commitment. I’ve published all these challenges because I made a commitment to you to post one a day for 21 days, I’ll let you into a secret, they weren’t all ready on day one, the plan was but there have been times when I’ve only been one step ahead of you! Going public with a promise will keep you on track. Selling tickets to an event or places on a course will make it happen. So what are you going to go public with? Where are you going to go public? How about here in the comments section? What about making the commitment on our Facebook page or on Twitter?

Why not find yourself an accountability partner? Someone who will hold you to your commitments. Someone who will be tough enough with you when you wobble. You could use a friend or fellow business owner or you could get yourself a mentor. Whoever you choose be very clear about what you want to be held accountable for. Agree your objectives and your measures. What will happen if you don’t make your commitment?

Don’t give up now! Make a public commitment to what you are going to achieve and then take the first step. Good luck.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)

With very few exceptions I believe that every one trying to make money should use social media. If your prospects go anywhere near the Internet when making purchasing decisions then you should be on social media. Yes I know it can be time consuming and fraught with danger but those things can be managed. So today I’m going to invite you to develop a social media strategy.

Which channels should you be on?

Infographic from mashable.com using data from Pew Research

I’m not going to suggest that you go mad and get active on every platform especially if you are not currently active on any but, if you are not already active on social networks, I do want you to experiment. As with all marketing you should go where your customers and prospects are but you can also use the networks to find suppliers, journalists, employees, freelancers and collaborators and to keep an eye on what your competitors are up to. Don’t tell me that your target audience are not on social networks because some of them will be, even my nearly 90 year old Dad has a Facebook account! One survey found that 32% of over 65s use social media and that number is likely to continue growing, so which platform to choose.

Facebook: Love it or hate it you should be on Facebook, it is by far the biggest platform with over 1.15 billion users of whom 40% are said to be in the 45-54 age range. This is interesting since the perception is often that Facebook has a younger user demographic. With Facebook you can have a personal page where you encourage your ‘friends’ to engage with you; you can control how much information different people see with the way you set your privacy settings. You can also have a business page which you invite people to ‘like’ your page which then has them receiving information you post. You can also set up groups within Facebook where members can connect with each other, discuss issues and share items of interest, Click the link at the bottom of the page to be taken to the 21 Day Challenge group. I’d love you to pop along and ‘like’ the Training Pack’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheTrainingPack

Twitter: My personal favourite! It is a micro blogging site so you tell your story in 140 characters which you ‘Tweet’ to your followers. Your followers can then retweet your messages to their followers which can extend your reach considerably. Twitter enables you to share links to websites, blog posts, booking media and more. It is very well used by journalists looking for quotes or people to feature in articles. Twitter makes celebrities and industry notables much easier to contact than any other medium, replies aren’t guaranteed but many do engage with their genuine fans. It would be great if you could follow me on Twitter at @Glenda_S

Linked In: Is generally seen as the professional site and is used to find employment, professional services contracts and/or employees. Again Linked In has interest groups which you can join and contribute to to enhance your online profile and establish your expertise. If you are selling a product or service in the business/employment arena then you should have a Linked In profile at the very least. I’m on Linked In as Glenda Shawley, I’d be happy to connect with you there.

Pinterest: is a very visual medium where you ‘pin’ images to boards with a suitable comment. It is especially useful if you are selling a product as you can upload images and links to your sales pages. I also find it useful for developing vision boards such as the one recommended on Day 2 of this challenge. I also like the fact that I can support my clients by posting images of their products or services too. I’d love you to follow my new business Pinterest account at www.pinterest.com/thetrainingpack Have you visited the Pinterest board I set up for this challenge yet?

Google Plus: I have to confess that I’m still getting to grips with Google Plus but I can see it has the potential to be a really useful tool. The big advantage is that it integrates effectively with other Google services such as You Tube and it certainly helps with search engine optimisation. You can post messages, pictures, videos and more to the site and organise your connections into circles so that they only receive the most relevant of your communications. The Hangouts feature within Google Plus allows you to have online meetings with a small group using your computer’s webcam so this would be a great bonus for trainers, coaches and others working remotely.

You Tube: is the second biggest search engine after Google so you should be on there! You don’t have to film yourself or even do a voice over if you don’t want to. You can make your PowerPoint presentations into videos as I did in Days 15 and 16 of this challenge, you can make an Animoto video as I did on Day 2, you can record testimonials from your customers as Valerie Smith of Viva Videos did for me below or you can film an event, product demonstration, talk or anything that takes your fancy.

Instagram: is another visual medium where users can share photographs and videos. One way to use Instagram would be to get your customers to take photos of themselves using your products, attending your events or gathering information for you. With their permission you could share those photographs in your marketing activities.

Managing your communications

It is essential that you manage your social media engagement or there is a chance that it will take over your life. I know that you will come across people offering to manage it for you but whilst that has its uses I don’t think you can abdicate all responsibility yourself. The most important thing is to have a strategy, or strategies. You may have a different strategy for each network, for instance you might use Twitter to connect with journalists, Facebook and Pinterest to sell product and Instagram to engage with your customers.

ACTION: Choose one or more social networks that you are not currently using effectively and decide what your objective will be for being there. Who do you want to engage with e.g. prospects, customers, suppliers journalists etc.? What do you want to achieve, is it to build your prospect list, to sell £x amount, to get press coverage or something else? Integrate this with the marketing plan you started developing on Day 15.

Here are just a few tips for the most widely used networks.

Which ever network you decide to focus on be active, spend at least 10 minutes a day taking part. Engage people in conversation. Be interesting. Use any insight tools they have to see when your audience is most engaged and be there then, this often means first thing in the morning, lunchtime, just before close of business and maybe evening.

Use a tool like Hootsuite to manage posts in advance across a number of platforms. For instance if you are organising an event you’ll want to make promotional posts across your different networks at different times of the day, you can use Hootsuite to schedule these in advance. This is particularly useful when you have a very busy day, you remain visible on social networks without having to find time you don’t have!

Facebook: building a following takes time, watch what other people are doing successfully and think how you can adapt their ideas to suit you. Photographs tend to be more popular and readily shared than words. Join in conversations, be encouraging, share tips. Many users, especially in the ‘craft’ sector run contests open to people who ‘share’ and ‘like’ their pages, they draw a winner when they hit a predetermined target for number of likes. Facebook has an enormous amount of data about their users which allows them target your advertising very precisely, you can give it a try by putting a cap on how much money you want to spend a day or for the campaign.

Twitter: Build your own followers by following other people who meet your strategic objectives, many will follow you back. Use the search function to find people. Re-tweet messages for people you’d like to build a relationship with and whose messages would be of interest to your followers. To make seeing important messages more easily create lists and add the people you are following to these so that you only see their messages. For instance I have a list of journalists so if I’m looking for a PR opportunity I will click on that list to see if there are any suitable requests there.

Use the # function to find and join conversations that meet your objectives. For example #bizitalk will find people talking about business; #London will find people talking about London. Use Twitter to drive invite people to open events and to drive traffic to your website or blog. A word of warning, Twitter has some controls in place to keep things personal this can be a disadvantage if you follow a lot more people than follow you back. It tends to kick in for the first time when you follow 2000 people whilst your own following is a way off that number.

Linked In: make sure that you have an up to date professional profile and look for, and then participate in groups that allow you to demonstrate your knowledge and personality but be very careful about making an overt sales pitch, they are generally frowned upon in Linked In.

ACTION: Take the channel that you set objectives for and start building your following and posting interesting content. Use the comments function here to tell us how to tell us how to find you on your chosen channel and then follow the other people who list their details here or in our Facebook group. Connect with me using the links above and I’ll follow you back (unless Twitter still has me in jail!)

Recommended reading

I can’t cover all there is to know in one, even rather long, challenge. I suggest you use the link below for plenty of quality content which will answer many of the social media questions you are likely to have. Why not post some questionsin the comment box or in the Facebook group and see if we can share expertise with other challengers.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)

This blog about a controversial advertising campaign was one of my most successful.

Did you start to think about how you are going to market your money making venture yesterday? Did you consider blogging? Today we’re going to think whether a blog would be useful to you.

Why blog?

If you need to be online but don’t have the budget for a purpose designed website then a blog might be the answer. You can run a website and blog for very little or even no money. A blog is particularly useful if you need to demonstrate your expertise and reach out to a global market.

A blog will allow you to build a following and track where your visitors are coming from and what they are reading. You can promote engagement with your prospects by encouraging comments and polls as well as integrating your posts with other social media channels. To be most effective you will need to post articles on a regular basis and keep on subject.

Successful blogging

There are millions of blogs online which makes it really difficult to get your voice heard. However there are a number of things that you can do to improve your chances:

be really clear about the audience you are writing for (this should be the same as your target customer)

be consistent in what you write about, e.g. if you are wanting to recruit people to your diet programme write about healthy food, if you are raising money for charity write about the work of the charity and the problems they are solving

be regular, commit to posting on a regular basis to build your readership. Try to post at least once a week, twice is even better but if you can’t manage that write at least one post per month

develop your voice, let your personality shine through. People buy people, not everyone will like you but that’s OK. If you’re too bland you’ll win few readers. Don’t be afraid to be controversial or to write about controversial subjects. I always get more engagement on my blog when I write about a topic where people have strong opinions.

use other social media to drive traffic to your blog

comment on other people’s blogs from your blog account, choose people whose audience is similar to yours

Setting up your blog

In most polls WordPress emerges as the clear winner of the most popular blog host contest but some swear by Blogger, others like Posterous and Tumblr is growing in popularity particularly for blogs with high visual content. My personal favourite is WordPress which is easy to use, integrates well with You Tube for uploading video and gives great insights into where visitors are coming from and what they are reading.

If you haven’t set up a blog before this video might help to get you going on WordPress.

ACTION: Think whether a blog would be useful as part of your promotional strategy and if the answer is yes, set up your blog. Write your first article and share it in the comments here and in our Facebook group. We’ll share the links and promote your blog on Twitter too.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)

Hopefully you now have your Power Hour scheduled into your diary and are using it to work on your money making idea. Today we’re going to turn that idea into an achievable project plan using the list that you created on day 8.

Create your project plan

A project management plan

If you organise a lot of projects you may well have access to project management software and the expertise to use it. In which case you can probably skip today’s article and get on with developing your project plan. However, for the rest of you here’s a tool to help you with your project planning. It’s a very straightforward six month plan built on an Excel spreadsheet. So let’s get down to some planning:

Start by listing everything from your day 8 list in the left hand column. You’ll need to cut and paste the list into the second and third sections if your plan is going to need more than two months to come to fruition. If there aren’t enough rows for all the items on your list insert some extra rows.

Now colour the cell (box) for the day you have set as your deadline. You should be able to shade a cell within Excel quite easily.

Now using your list from day 8, decide how long each item on the list is going to take to complete.

The next thing to do is to plot your critical path. Which tasks are date dependent or must be done before you can do other work? In my example which is about selling a new course I can’t do much until I have booked a venue and I can’t start developing the course until I have researched needs. I have to sort our a payment method before I can set up a booking link and I need to do those before I start marketing. I also can’t print my flier or upload the webpage until I’ve written them! Which items on your list are time critical? Shade in the cells for those first. When do they need to be done by? How long will they take? (You may need to shade cells for several days if you have a big task to do.)

When colouring your cells you might find it helpful to colour similar tasks in similar colours e.g. all admin tasks in one colour, all marketing in another, all tasks you can delegate in a further colour etc.

Now allocate time to the remaining items on your list by colouring in those cells too. Make sure that you have allocated sufficient time and that they fit with your critical path. It’s quite possible that you’ll have a number of different activities scheduled over the same period but be realistic about what you can achieve unless you can delegate some of the tasks.

Save your plan! The template is in Dropbox so you’ll want to rename it and save it to your computer.

Now check that your plan is realistic. If it’s not is your deadline achievable with a bit of re-planning or do you need to change your deadline?

It’s always a good idea to add in a bit of contingency time for things that don’t go according to plan, demanding customers, printing arriving late, family illnesses etc.

You might want to print off your plan, stick it on the wall and tick off the items as you complete them. Alternatively, if you are using a tool like Simpleology (see Day 8) you may want to add your tasks and their deadlines to your to do list. Another option would be to change the colour of the cells in your Excel spreadsheet as you complete the tasks and use that as your control document.

ACTION: Complete your project plan as above.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Share any insights or recommendations in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.)

Over the last few days you’ve been developing your ideas, looking at the competition and working out the financial viability of your ideas. You may already have reached a decision about which idea to pursue, if not today’s the day to make that decision. If the numbers exercise yesterday was inconclusive I have a couple of decision making aids for you to use today.

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is great for decision making.

This is one of my favourite tools when I have any kind of decision to make. It’s virtue is that it is very simple and very visual so making reaching a decision relatively easy.

If you haven’t used the tool before it is usually represented as a grid as shown in the illustration. Strengths and weaknesses refer to the ‘internal’ elements of the issue you are considering, the ones you have control over. Opportunities and threats are ‘external’ and are the extraneous elements over which you have little control, things like the economy, government policies etc. As you will see the strengths and opportunities are the positives and weaknesses and threats the negatives.

The beauty of this simple tool is that you can see very quickly whether the positives outweigh the negatives so you will soon know which ideas to bin!

ACTION: Do a SWOT analysis for each of your ideas. You might find an obvious winner.

Grid Analysis

A grid analysis will allow you to differentiate even further to reach a decision.

This is another tool that I find really useful, especially when a SWOT analysis hasn’t produced a clear winner. In a grid analysis you determine you assessment criteria, the things that are really important to you, and then you score each of your ideas or issues against each of the criteria. I usually use a score out of 10. When you’ve allocated a score to each criterion and each issue you total them up and hopefully will have a ranked order of preference.

In order to reach a decision on your money making idea decide what are the most important considerations and list those on the grid. You can download a template here I’ve included some potential items to consider but you can change these to suit yourself.

ACTION: Complete the grid analysis for the ideas you’ve still got left on the table and see where it takes you, hopefully you’ll be able to decide which idea to pursue.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

Download the SWOT and Grid analysis templates or print them out to use pen and paper to complete them. Make your decision about which idea to pursue.

Share any insights in the comments section here.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.

Welcome back! Hopefully you now have some ideas simmering and are getting closer to finding a way to make money. So today I want you to start investigating the competition.

Competition is a good thing. Competition means that people want what you have to sell. A lack of competition indicates that there is no market. I believe we can learn from our competitors and even do business with them. In the 21 years I have been in business my most lucrative contracts have come by working collaboratively with my competitors.

What form does your competition take?

The obvious form of competition is from your direct competitors, people offering a very similar service to yours. Of course these people can be a threat but they can also be really helpful to our businesses. Have you noticed how restaurants in proximity to other restaurants usually do much better than those that are isolated? The more you understand about your direct competitors the better.

Exactly what do they offer?

What do they charge?

How do they trade?

What are their operating hours?

Who are their customers?

What do they do well?

What do they not do so well?

How busy are they?

What marketing do they do?

Are there gaps in their service provision that you could fill?

Most businesses also have indirect competitors, in other words another business competing for your customer’s pound or dollar but in a different way. For example, you might take your hostess a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, a bottle of wine, some handmade toiletries or something else. Your customers have a budget and can only spend it once, what options do they consider? Understanding how your prospects think about what they will buy will help you to identify your indirect competitors. When you know that you can go through the questions above to understand where you can compete.

Be inspired by your competitors

Strong competition will keep you on your toes. It will encourage you to look for new ideas, to challenge yourself and your colleagues to even better customer service and to find your point of difference. Take an in depth look at your immediate competition. Look at what they do well and where there is scope for you to compete.

ACTION: Draw up a table to record your findings.

You probably know who your local competitors are but if not talk to potential customers about where they currently go to meet their needs. Take a walk around your neigbourhood with your eyes wide open. Look in local business directories or talk to your Chamber of Commerce or local authority. It might even be worth trying out their services.

For competition further afield do an internet search, visit their websites, track them on social media, look at review sites such as Trip Adviser if appropriate. Read their blogs, watch their You Tube videos. These will usually give you an insight into the personality and interests of your competitors which might help you find your point of difference.

Read your trade press, some of your brightest competitors are probably using PR to build their businesses so may well be featured in articles. What can you learn?

Don’t be intimidated!

I go back to my first point, competition is a good thing, don’t be put off by it unless your market is already saturated and you are only offering a ‘me too’ service. Use your understanding of your competitors and your understanding of your own unique personality to craft an offering that is right for your target market. One that will appeal, that will have a character of its own and one that you will be proud to be associated with. I look forward to reading about how your offer is different.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

When you have completed today’s task why not tell us how your offer will be different to your competitors?

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge) but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.

If we are going to make money we are going to need people who are willing to buy from us so, before we can decide what to sell, we need to understand our target market and what their needs are. Ideally this challenge is about making money by doing something different to your normal business. It might be by reaching out to a new target market. It might be by selling a different product or service. It might be by leveraging your time and skills in a different way. It might be by doing something completely different.

Too often people start with a product or service that they want to sell rather than a problem that people want solving. You may be familiar with this song from the musical Oliver, it demonstrates the classic mistake.

Who will buy?

Ideally your target market will be one you know something about, perhaps one you fit into yourself. If you are a parent of a pre-schooler you will understand some of the challenges that other parents of young children have, you will also have connections with some of your prospects which will make it easier to test out your idea.

If you own a small business you will understand some of the issues other business owners face and you’ll probably have prospects in your network. If you are having problems supporting aged parents then there are probably others with the same problems so if you can find a solution others might be willing to pay for it. You get the idea.

ACTION: Decide what market you want to sell to.

Understanding your target.

So now you know what your market is you need to develop as much understanding of that market as you can. Here are some questions to help:

Are they male or female?

What age are they?

What is their marital status?

How many children do they have? What age are they?

Where do they live? Are they home owners or renters?

What do they do for a living?

Where do they work and how do they get there?

What do they do in their leisure time?

What do they read? Do they read in print or digitally?

What problems keep them awake at night? Can you solve those problems at an affordable price?

And if you are selling to a business audience here are a few more questions to consider:

ACTION: Decide what problem you can solve profitably and describe your target for that solution in detail using the questions above and any others that will help you build a clear picture.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

When you have completed today’s task why not share your targets here?

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge) but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.

If you completed yesterday’s activity you should now know what you are aiming for. You’ll have a figure that you want to make, a reason for making the money and a deadline by which you want to achieve your goal. Today we’re going to work on making a real commitment to our goal.

Creating the vision.

There is something very powerful about creating the vision of what we are trying to achieve. Imagining ourselves having achieved our goals can be a really powerful motivator. The more real we can make that vision the better. So we’re going to have a bit of fun today imagining our success.

Imagine today is the day you have set as your deadline and you have achieved your goal:

What can you see? Can you see the results of your money making? Can you imagine the children’s faces on Christmas Day when they open their presents and imagine how you feel knowing that you won’t have a big credit card bill next month? Can you picture the places you are going to visit on that special holiday? Can you imagine owning and using that new bit of kit you set as your goal?

What can you smell and taste? Maybe the turkey is roasting in the oven, maybe you can taste the exotic foods you’ll be trying on your travels or perhaps you can taste the champagne!

ACTION: The more of your senses that you can engage in picturing your achievement the more motivating the vision will become. So switch off any distractions, close the door to interruptions, shut your eyes and start engaging your five senses (sight, sound, feel, taste, smell) in creating the vision of your achievement. When you’ve done that come back for the next activity.

Capture the vision

Now, before you lose your vision, we want to capture your ideas so you have something to keep coming back to. I have three ideas as to how you might do this but you might have others in which case please share them here in the comments or in the Facebook group.

Create a vision board

Here’s one for the more kinaesthetic among you! This involves cutting and sticking images that represent your vision on to a large sheet of paper. So if your target is money for Christmas you might have photos of children opening presents on Christmas Day, of the family round the Christmas tree, of the turkey ready to carve, and of the cut up credit card. If you are trying to make the money for a new computer you might have a picture of the computer you want to buy together with images of the games you want to play, the software you want to use etc. Make your vision board as colourful and inspiring as you can. Why not put the amount of money you are trying to achieve in the centre so that you are really focused on your desired result. Now pin your vision board up where you will see it and be inspired every day.

Here’s an example of a vision board I made as part of another activity.

Make a video

Here’s one for those of you of a more technical bent. Make an Animoto video of your vision. You can make a 30 second video for free and upload it to You Tube to share with others or to keep private if you prefer. You’ll need some photos or video clips and can add in text such as your target amount and what you are making the money for. Here’s the one I made as an example:

Pin it!

For those of you who love social media you could create a board in Pinterest to share your vision. The beauty about a Pinterest board is that you can keep adding to it as you find more inspiration and, if you like, other people can pin images or comment on your pins which could give you more ideas.

I have set myself a goal of making between £1000 and £5000 to have my online presence re-branded for greater consistency but especially to reflect my personality. I have therefore created a board with pictures of websites that do more of what I want to achieve but I’ve also included lots of pictures that reflect who I am and what matters to me. This should inspire me but could also help a designer when I’m ready to brief one. Here’s my board, the beauty is I’ll be able to use it as a place to store more relevant images as I come across them.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

When you have completed today’s task why not share your vision here, send us a link to your video or Pinterest board, take a photo of your vision board upload it to Facebook and then share the link in the comments below.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.

Welcome to your first activity on the 21 Day Make Money Challenge. Your task today is to define your objective and your motivation.

We can all say we want to make more money but why? What would we do with any extra money we made?

What do you want to make money for?

Whether you are doing this challenge for your personal or business finances you need to determine a target. Think what you would do with the extra money you are planning to make. Here are some ideas to get you started:

buy a new computer or other equipment

refurbish your office or a room in your home

re-brand your business

develop a new website

pay the membership on a networking group or club you want to join

do a training course to gain a new skill or qualification

raise the finance to start a small business

host a party for your staff and customers

pay for Christmas or another celebration without maxing out the credit cards

How much money do I want to make?

Perhaps you already know how much money you’ll need to do what you want to do but if not you’ll need to do some research. We’ll do some proper budgeting later in the challenge for now what we’re looking for is a ‘ballpark’ figure. You might find your answer via a Google search or you may need to make a few phone calls to price work you want done.

Try to get a range of prices so that you can have a basic target, a mid point and a stretch goal. So your basic target would pay for a computer with no frills and your stretch target would get you the latest all singing, all dancing good looking model.

ACTION: Research how much it will cost you to reach your goal a) at the basic level b) with a few frills c) with 5 star luxury! Make a note of how you arrived at these figures, which websites did you use? Where dd you get the estimates from? How did you arrive at the numbers?

Why do you want to make that money?

Understanding our reasons for wanting something is a great motivator. What we’re looking for is something you really ,really want. The more you want something the more motivated you will be to stick with it when life gets in the way. How will you feel when you have achieved your goal? What will it allow you to do that you can’t do now?

Tell me what I want, what I really, really want sang the Spice Girls. Do you know what you really, really want?

Make sure that your reasons for wanting to make this money are your reasons not something that someone else is dictating. Just because your son wants a new computer to play the latest games on may not be reason enough for you, You might just want something that allows you to shop online without waiting a week for the order to upload and lets you send a decent looking letter when you need to, or maybe you really want something with high definition graphics that will really help you to develop your photographic skills. This is your challenge so make sure that your goal matters to you.

What is your deadline?

When do you want to have made this money by? Be realistic. This is a 21 day challenge in which you’ll make your plan to achieve your financial goal. You’ll then have to implement your plan to make that money. If you want to make just a couple of hundred then you may only need a few weeks but if your goal is thousands be realistic about how long it will take to make so much.

ACTION: Choose a date by which you want to have made your target amount.

Next steps, should you choose to take them…

When you have completed today’s task share your goal in the comments section, below (no need to say why you want to make this amount if you don’t want to). A goal shared is much more likely to be achieved.

Join the conversation on Facebook to gain support from the 21 Day Challenge community (we’ll be looking at some of the benefits of social media later in the challenge but for now being active on this page and on Facebook can help boost the way people can find you on the Internet.